It is inherently portable, because the bytecode can be run everywhere you have a JVM. You don't need to compile for every platform you wan't to run your software in, or muck around with cross-compilers. True, you can do plattform-spesific things in any language, but the Java standards library is almost entirely cross-plattform. In this way, Java really is as cross-platform as it gets.
The language itself is more secure. Buffer overflow? Forget about it. Undefined behaviour? Forget about it. Wierd stuff happening due to pointer arithmetick. Forget about it. Memory leaks? Forget about it, (well, almost).
Why can't it be used for client software? A JVM language can be used for anything that doesn't require minimal use of memory or short start-up time. Any program you write that will be running for more than 10 seconds and don't run in a memory strained environment, fits Java rather well.
Java is also easier to learn and reason about IMHO than C++.
Java today is the easier, safer, more portable but slower and memory-hungry edition of C++. Which is why there is a hype. Altough that hype is slowly dying, due to Java (the language, not the vm and ecosystem) being outdated compared to it's competitors.
> Altough that hype is slowly dying, due to Java (the language, not the vm and ecosystem) being outdated compared to it's competitors.
This part I have some issues with: the language is still quite modern (compared to C, for example). There are several other reasons for its slow demise: its licensing issues and initially problematic Linux implementations put it at a disadvantage on the server side and in circles where open source was important. It is quite verbose and not well-suited for web development - not the best proposition at a time where scripting languages and rapid web prototyping were on the rise. Finally, the enterprisey orientation of later developments around Java and heavyweight ecosystem really put off beginners - editing XML (build.xml bigger than the whole program...) sucks.
I'm comparing Java to languages like C#, C++ and Go, and Java is definitely falling behind. Java 8 will be a big improvement, but I'll still miss having variable type-inference (auto in C++, var in C# and Go).
C is supposed to map very easily to what actually happens under the hood. Thus C will never have closures, type-inference, generators and the like as a part of the language. This is a part of the languages design, which is why you shouldn't compare it to feature rich languages like Java or even C++.
It is inherently portable, because the bytecode can be run everywhere you have a JVM. You don't need to compile for every platform you wan't to run your software in, or muck around with cross-compilers. True, you can do plattform-spesific things in any language, but the Java standards library is almost entirely cross-plattform. In this way, Java really is as cross-platform as it gets.
The language itself is more secure. Buffer overflow? Forget about it. Undefined behaviour? Forget about it. Wierd stuff happening due to pointer arithmetick. Forget about it. Memory leaks? Forget about it, (well, almost).
Why can't it be used for client software? A JVM language can be used for anything that doesn't require minimal use of memory or short start-up time. Any program you write that will be running for more than 10 seconds and don't run in a memory strained environment, fits Java rather well.
Java is also easier to learn and reason about IMHO than C++.
Java today is the easier, safer, more portable but slower and memory-hungry edition of C++. Which is why there is a hype. Altough that hype is slowly dying, due to Java (the language, not the vm and ecosystem) being outdated compared to it's competitors.